LTO employees in Cebu hire outsiders

CEBU CITY — Believe it or not, but some employees of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Cebu are themselves employing outsiders, using their own money, to work for them in their offices.

How they can afford to do this, given the amount of salaries they receive, and the nature of work these outsiders are made to do, has prompted an investigation.

Now, LTO regional director Porferio Mendoza has ordered the practice stopped, believing that something illegal may be involved in the setup.

Mendoza has given the concerned employees an ultimatum to stop the practice and get rid of the outsiders they have hired.

One of the concerned employees, Teresita Rosco, has hired three outsiders to work for her. Rosco is in charge of issuing plates and stickers to owners of vehicles registered with the LTO regional office.

Her monthly salary is only about P10,000. Yet she proudly told Mendoza that because of lack of personnel, she hired three outsiders to work for her.

Rosco is paying each of her "employees" P100 a day.

At that rate, and granting that each employee works five days a week for four weeks each month, she is bound to pay each of them P2,000 a month.

That means she has to shell out P6,000 a month to these people from her meager monthly salary of P10,000, leaving her with just P4,000 to get by.

Mendoza said he cannot believe that Rosco works for the government to earn just enough to pay for her three helpers.

Rosco, whom Mendoza summoned last Friday, said she was not the only one engaged in the same practice and squealed on the others.

She said other employees at the LTO vehicle registration division, particularly at the records section, are engaged in similar activities.

This led Mendoza to suspect that these employees must have other means to make money to afford them to compensate outsiders whom they have hired.

But the practice could be much more widespread. Sources said it is similarly being done in other LTO offices throughout the region.

Mendoza reminded his employees that after he assumed office late last year, he immediately asked those who might be engaged in illegal practices to stop.

Mendoza rose from the ranks and is familiar with shenanigans at the LTO.

LTO legal officer Vicente Gador Jr. is now investigating the activities of a syndicate operating at the LTO Cebu City registration section believed responsible for huge losses to the government.

Mendoza said some employees at the LTO branch in Jagna, Bohol are also under investigation for allegedly shortchanging the government by tampering with their income reports.

He said that since 1998, unscrupulous employees at the Jagna LTO office have managed to pocket P259,498. Their actual collections amounted to P302,844 but they reported only P43,346.

Mendoza also discovered a similar illegal activity at the LTO Mandaue City branch but the case has been remanded to the LTO head office in Manila.

The irregularity involved the tampering with receipts intended for the Commission on Audit and LTO files to make it appear that collections have not been so big.

In one case, the LTO branch in Jagna was shown to have received P7,630 on Oct. 22, 1999 for the registration of a vehicle but what was recorded was just P139.50.

After the irregularity was uncovered, Mendoza immediately relieved Leonardo Olaivar, the LTO district head in Jagna, and placed him and his staffers under investigation. — Freeman News Service